+CHAITYA HALLS.+ The Buddhist speos-temples--so far as known the only extant halls of worship of that religion, except one at Sanchi--are mostly in the Bombay Presidency, at Ellora, Karli, Ajunta, Nassick, and Bhaja. The earliest, that at Karli, dates from 78 B.C., the latest (at Ellora), _cir._ 600 A.D. They consist uniformly of a broad nave ending in an apse, and covered by a roof like a barrel vault, and two narrow side aisles. In the apse is the _dagoba_ or relic-shrine, shaped like a miniature tope. The front of the cave was originally adorned with an open-work screen or frame of wood, while the face of the rock about the opening was carved into the semblance of a sumptuous structural façade. Among the finest of these caverns is that at +Karli+, whose massive columns and impressive scale recall Egyptian models, though the resemblance is superficial and has no historic significance. More suggestive is the affinity of many of the columns which stand before these caves to Persian prototypes (see Fig. 21). It is not improbable that both Persian and classic forms were introduced into India through the Bactrian kingdom 250 years B.C. Otherwise we must seek for the origin of nearly all Buddhist forms in a pre-existing wooden architecture, now wholly perished, though its traditions may survive in the wooden screens in the fronts of the caves. While some of these caverns are extremely simple, as at Bhaja, others, especially at +Nassick+ and +Ajunta+, are of great splendor and complexity. +VIHARAS.+ Except at Gandhara in the Punjab, the structural monasteries of the Buddhists were probably all of wood and have long ago perished. The Gandhara monasteries of Jamalgiri and Takht-i-Bahi present in plan three or four courts surrounded by cells. The centre of one court is in both cases occupied by a platform for an altar or shrine. Among the ruins there have been found a number of capitals whose strong resemblance to the Corinthian type is now generally attributed to Byzantine rather than Bactrian influences. These viharas may therefore be assigned to the 6th or 7th century A.D. The rock-cut viharas are found in the neighborhood of the chaityas already described. Architecturally, they are far more elaborate than the chaityas. Those at Salsette, Ajunta, and Bagh are particularly interesting, with pillared halls or courts, cells, corridors, and shrines. The hall of the +Great Vihara+ at +Bagh+ is 96 feet square, with 36 columns. Adjoining it is the school-room, and the whole is fronted by a sumptuous rock-cut colonnade 200 feet long. These caves were mostly hewn between the 5th and 7th centuries, at which time sculpture was more prevalent in Buddhist works than previously, and some of them are richly adorned with figures.